At stake isn’t just a handful of gamers, though: MMOGs mean money — big money if you happen to hit it just right. Based on NPD figures as of February 2004, 2moons dil Galaxies has sold more than 300,000 boxed copies at retail for a total initial revenue of over $18 million dollars. That’s not bad for a PC title. world of warcraft gold The most conservative estimates of Galaxies’ stable player base estimates approximately 100,000 active players, each paying $14.95 a month over and above the initial cost of the software. world of warcraft gold

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The long and storied history of the Galaxies Jedi epitomizes the struggle of any massively multiplayer game to make a lasting connection with a fickle audience. Gaia Online It’s a story of warring game philosophies, conflicting player and designer expectations, and a vocal (okay, a very vocal) player base.

“Star Wars Galaxies has much more than double the number of subscribers quoted on GameSpy. For the record, the title is doing very, very well and is the second largest MMO in the North American market.”) tales of pirates

But first, some background. 2moons

This is a story about Jedi.

Regarded as one of the most ambitious MMOGs ever launched and greeted with hype spawned from decades of movies, no other game has had a more difficult road than Galaxies. buy maplestory mesos On top of a combat system that included player-vs.-player, the game featured more than 30 professions, lord of the rinds 10 full planets to fill with content, an in-game civil war, wow gold buildable structures, and an economy completely run by the players. And beyond trying to manage and balance all of that, the game’s creators announced that months after release, certain players would be able to earn Jedi powers. These rare individuals would be the kind of über-characters depicted in the movies, hellgate london palladium with immense power — yet somehow they’d fit right into the game without destroying the fun for everyone else. Or themselves. A tall order. lord of the rinds

That sounds like a lot of money — and it is. lord of the rinds But it has to be balanced against the millions of dollars spent on development, publishing, and marketing as well as the ongoing costs of maintaining the game: server costs, bandwidth, 2moons the salaries of the customer service professionals, guild wars money and most importantly, a “live content” team that’s bigger than the development crew of most single-player games. Obviously, a well-run and popular MMOG can bring in a lot of money for a publisher. world of warcraft gold The risk, however, is just as great as the reward: it doesn’t take too many subscriber defections to push the product toward insolvency. 2moons Any smart company realizes that every new subscriber is gold and every subscriber lost brings the title that much closer to going into the red. wow gold

Development of any MMOG is a careful balancing act, top gold like spinning a thousand plates on poles at once and not letting any of them fall. In a single-player title, buy maplestory mesos game developers can tailor the game experience to one player. wow gold Not so online, maplestory mesos where everybody is a paid subscriber and one player’s fun can’t take priority over another. lord of the rinds gold In Grand Theft Auto players can steal cars; in an online game, wow gold players couldn’t steal cars without the owners getting upset and canceling their subscriptions. It’s (literally) a whole different world. Making an MMOG is tough. The Lord of the Rings(us)

But unlike single-player games, online games are continually evolving. maple story The story is still being written. This is a tale about the give and take of a game that can give and take more than any other: an ongoing drama in a galaxy far, far away, and a look ahead to what’s going to happen next. maplestory mesos

(Editor’s Note: Subsequent to the publication of this article, GameSpy recieved the following official statement from John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment: tales of pirates

Not from a galaxy far, far away, of course. world of warcraf We’re talking about the digital Jedi within LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment’s Star Wars Galaxies, hellgate palladium a group of players who more than any other embody both the promise and frustrations of a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). http://virdealgw2.domsalumni.org/page/2/